


quiet

by SilentRabidWriter



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Codependency, Do Not Archive (The Magnus Archives), Dreams, Dreamsharing, Horror Elements, M/M, Manipulation, Possessive Behavior, Small changes to canon, Spoilers, Unhealthy Relationships, post 160
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22531729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilentRabidWriter/pseuds/SilentRabidWriter
Summary: In this new world, only Elias makes Jon's world go quiet. He's not happy with that discovery.
Relationships: Elias Bouchard/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 17
Kudos: 136
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	quiet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nemainofthewater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemainofthewater/gifts).



> Once I saw your prompt I knew I had to write something.  
> This was a lot of fun to make and I hope it's what you had in mind as well.
> 
> I like to pretend Jon/Martin didn't happen in this, but it's really up to your interpretation.

Jon wakes to an endless sky filled with eyes. It’s harder and harder to tell if he’s awake or still dreaming.

But the world is empty beneath his feet and he knows he’s asleep on a couch somewhere, collapsed under the sheer weight of knowledge and fear pressing in on him from all sides.

Even here, he can’t catch a break. He sees a woman collapsed on the ground. Slowly, but surely, it pulls her down until she becomes just another victim of the Buried. Her panicked gaze meets his and for a moment Jon knows that she knows that he’s there, that he watches her end without reaching out to help.

Then she’s gone and another specter takes her place. He watches a man, trapped in a labyrinth of endless corridors and Jon knows that he will never get out of there.

He hears Helen’s laugh in his ears for a brief second, before it dies down again, swallowed by all the other noises. More images flash before his eyes, some real and some only in his head. It quickly becomes too much.

Even when he closes his eyes, nothing changes. He still sees everything that’s happening and sometimes all at once. He wishes his dreams would be quiet for once.

It’s too much for any human to ever bear. It’s almost too much for him as well.

A cool touch against his head makes him open his eyes again, seeing what’s in front of him rather than the next nightmare pulled from an innocent soul. The world goes quiet for a brief moment.

Then, Jon takes a step back, recoiling when he recognizes the man and he starts to _see_ again.

Elias hasn’t changed at all and yet, he seems to be a completely different person. He looks at Jon with eyes filled with pride.

“What are you doing here?” Compulsion laces his words, it always does these days, but Elias only smiles and doesn’t resist.

“A gift from our Master, I assume,” he says. “Or maybe I just wanted to see you. You’ve left so quickly.” There is honest regret in Elias’s voice and it makes Jon sick. If he could he would pull away and hide forever from Elias’s steady gaze. But he can’t. He feels like he’s on the brink of losing his mind and Elias is the only one that has the answers that keep him sane.

“How are you doing it?” Their power is different in some ways but it still stems from the same source. How can Elias go on about his day, scheming, and lying, and planning without stumbling when his head is filled with knowledge? How can he handle it without breaking?

“Practice,” Elias answers easily. You will get there in no time, I’m sure.” He doesn’t approach again, just watches Jon with a quiet smile on his lips.

“How can I accelerate it?” Jon snaps, unconsciously taking a step forward. When he closes in on Elias, the cacophony of fear softens to a gentle whisper and Jon pales.

Elias’s smile widens. They both know, that he knows.

Jon wants to punch him, but instead, he raises his hand as if compelled. He places it on Elias’s shoulder and for a blissful second his world is finally quiet. When Elias places his own hand on top, his touch is possessive and a dark hunger flashes in his eyes.

“Is there maybe something you want, Archivist?”

Then, Jon wakes up.

He lasts three days before he breaks. The voices are everywhere now, worming their way into his mind and into his dreams. His head is pounding with the onslaught of information and he barely has the energy to make it back to London.

The Archives are just a memory at this point but Jon knows exactly where Elias is waiting for him. He’s not sure if he found that information or if it found him. It hardly matters anyway.

The door is open when he arrives and the man he meets in the living room is no different than Jon remembers. It suddenly strikes him as strange. This apocalypse is their doing and yet they remain unchanged by it, at least externally.

For a moment, they look at each other across the room. Then, Elias smiles and Jon crumbles.

He closes the distance between them, hoping for whatever happened in his dreams will be mirrored in reality. He takes Elias’s outstretched hand and the world goes quiet once again.

For an infinitely long second, it’s pure bliss.

Then, Elias yanks him close, his hold twisting into something possessive and affectionate and Jon feels bile rising in his throat. He ought to push Elias away, to stop this before it fully starts but he can’t.

He knows that if he lets go the knowledge will push in again and he needs the reprieve, he needs to breathe.

“Why?” he asks, his voice slightly muffled by Elias’s shoulder. He doesn’t need to elaborate. They understand each other without words these days.

“Hmmm, a good question,” Elias muses, his hand drawing circles on Jon’s back. It’s almost comforting. “I have a few theories. Maybe we’re just the same. Maybe we’re two halves that can only work together. The one that sees and the one that knows. Poetic, isn’t it?” He stops for a moment as if waiting for Jon to approve. “But the truth is, I don’t know why. It’s beyond us to understand that, my dear archivist.”

It’s not the answer Jon hoped for. But he already knew as much. There is no rational explanation of why Elias’s touch is enough to keep the knowledge from seeping into his mind. Maybe it’s their patron ensuring that Jon needs Elias as much as Elias needs him, but somehow Jon doubts it’s anywhere that easy.

It doesn’t matter in the end, because he can’t change any of it.

He can’t stop knowing.

He can’t stop _seeing_.

He can’t do anything but cling to the man who made him like this.

“Oh Jon,” Elias murmurs against his temple and Jon can hear the smile in his voice. “You’ve exceeded my expectations.”

**Author's Note:**

> jon/elias really is my new-found weakness
> 
> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/s_r_writer)  
> i'm always down to talk about those two


End file.
